The cast of AMC's hit series MAD MEN

Thanks to everyone who entered the MAD MEN SEASON 3 DVD giveaway!!  There sure are lots of MAD MEN lovers who easily answered the Season 3 Trivia Questions!

Here are the answers:

1.  Sal (Bryan Batt) is one of the former Sterling Cooper ‘Mad Men’ to be rehired in the new firm that Draper starts.  True or False. FALSE

2.  When Joan’s husband fails to switch his specialty in psychiatry, what does he do without consulting Joan (Christina Hendricks)?  ENLISTS IN THE MILITARY

3. What is the name of the Draper’s new baby boy?  GENE (or EUGENE)

The winners are:  Kari from Irvine, CA, Lauren from Brooklyn, NY and Ron from Oak Park, IL.

I had planned on another DVD giveaway this week but failed to get a confirmation on the DVDs so, unless something changes later today, I’ll be posting next Friday.  Sorry for the confusion!

Until next time…keep watching!

Christina Hendricks rules the roost as Joan

While it’s going to be awhile until the fourth season premieres, the fantastic third season of AMC’s Mad Men is now out on DVD and the good people at AMC sent me over three copies to give away to YOU!!  I think this time I’m going to make you work for winning.

Answer all three season 3-centric questions correct and you’re entered in the drawing for the giveaway.  Email me your answers at jim@jimhalterman.com before midnight PST April 7th.  Good luck.

1.  Sal (Bryan Batt) is one of the former Sterling Cooper ‘Mad Men’ to be rehired in the new firm that Draper starts.  True or False.

2.  When Joan’s husband fails to switch his specialty in psychiatry, what does he do without consulting Joan (Christina Hendricks)?

3. What is the name of the Draper’s new baby boy?

Good luck!!!

DVD REVIEWS!!! The following are some reviews of notable DVD releases from some great 70s and 80s television series.

Simon & Simon: Season 4: By the time the light crime drama hit its fourth season, it was a staple of CBS’s successful Thursday night lineup that started with Tom Selleck in Magnum PI and ended with the long-running serial Knots Landing.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it was the philosophy behind the 22 episodes in season 4 as brothers Rick (Gerald McRaney) and AJ (Jameson Parker) tangle with baddies including kidnappers, jewel thieves, hit men as well as being accused of murder and, in one episode, the clean living AJ is slipped some angel dust!

The 1984-1985 season was one of Simon & Simon’s highest rated and it’s easy to see why. The crime drama was full of light humor as well as suspenseful life-threatening situations and, of course, the chemistry of McRaney and Parker was terrific and despite their different looks, it was easy to believe they were brothers.  The 4th season of the series is available this Tuesday everywhere that DVDs are sold or go to www.shoutfactory.com.

Rhoda: Season 2:   The  Mary Tyler Moore Show spun-off single gal, Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) in 1974, the series was an immediate success with Rhoda’s marriage in October 1974 being one of the highest rated episodes of any series. In the second season, it was business as usual for Rhoda and Joe (David Groh) who were navigating the first year of marriage while Rhoda’s sister Brenda (Julie Kavner) was given a dating life instead of mere jokes about her eating and her less-than-svelte figure.

The second season of Rhoda, out on DVD from The Shout Factory, would also spark an upcoming shift in the series when the producers realized it was easier writing for a single Rhoda than a married Rhoda. However, in this season, with 24-full length episodes, the chemistry between the cast (including Groh) gels nicely and the laughs are frequent. Another fun reason to check out an old 70s sitcom like Rhoda is the yet-to-be-discovered cavalcade of talent that guest-starred on the show. Everyone from John Ritter, Norman Fell, Joan Van Ark, Vivian Vance, Melanie Mayron, Tim Matheson and Ruth Gordon passed through the series.

The main reason to watch Rhoda, of course, is Valerie Harper. Playing a character who was single, married, happy or sad; Harper owned this role and consistently maintained a solid center to this sitcom and proved why she deserved her own series, the high ratings (at least through the second season) and Emmys that would come the show’s way. The DVD for Rhoda, Season 2 is available now anywhere DVDs are sold or atwww.shoutfactory.com.

Until next time…keep watching!

Pick up your copy of THE PRISONER today!

The Prisoner: Remakes of cult classics always send a little bit of fear in die-hard fans because why mess with a classic? However, instead of copying the classic practically frame by frame (as Gus Van Sant did when he remade the Hitchcock classic film Psycho) or there can be a reinterpretation of the original so comparisons don’t come quite as easy. The latter example is how AMC approached remaking The Prisoner, which was a classic British television series in the 1960s starring Patrick McGoohan.

The remake of The Prisoner, which has just been released on DVD by Warner Bros Home Video, updated the concept into a 6-part miniseries starring Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) and Sir Ian McKellan (The X-Men films, Lord of the Rings). In the film, a man known as Six (Caviezel) finds himself trapped in a place called The Village where he soon finds is a place where the inhabitants have their memories wiped clean, they only identify with being called a number and they under constant surveillance. Six finds himself with the desire to find out where he is, why he is there and how he can escape.

The AMC remaking of The Prisoner is an ambitious effort, to say the least, and obviously audiences were excited for this new take on an old classic because the miniseries did very well for the cable network when it aired last year.  The DVD comes chock full of extras, too. Besides unaired scenes and commentary on two episodes, there are several featurettes including “Beautiful Prison: The World of The Prisoner,” “A Six Hour Film Show in 92 days: The Diary of The Prisoner,” “The Prisoner Comic-Con Panel,” and “The Man Behind 2 – Jamie Campbell Bower interviews Sir Ian McKellan.

The Prisoner is a film that sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts will want to add to their DVD collections and did I mention it’s available now wherever DVDs are sold?

Stargate: Atlantis – The Complete Series Box Set Plunging even deeper into the world of science fiction is the DVD release of the complete five season run of Stargate: Atlantis.  After the success of the Richard Dean Anderson-starrer Stargate: SG1, it was clear that there was room for another series exploring the lost city of Atlantis and Stargate: Atlantis would leave audiences wanting more through0ut it’s five-year run on the SyFy channel.

This fantastic 26-disc boxed set from MGM Home Entertainment comes with all 100 episodes from seasons one through five as well as a bonus disc with exclusive never-before-seen special features that will give you an even deeper look inside the world ofStargate: Atlantis.

Fans gravitate towards science fiction series like this one for the special effects, commentary on our past, present and future and, of course, the great characters that come with the show. Stargate: Atlantis includes a wonderful ensemble cast that includes Joe Flanigan as John Sheppard, the Lt. Col in charge of the fleet; Rachel Luttrel as Teyla Emmagan, the leader of the Athosians; David Hewlett as Rodney McKay, scientist and expert on ancient technology; and Jason Momoa as Ronan Dex, a weapons specialist and also manages to add some sex appeal into the show.

While Stargate: Atlantis never won the critics over too much, fans couldn’t get enough and the show was hugely popular not only in the United States but overseas in Europe and Australia.  This giftset of the series is a must-have for fans of the show or for anyone who loves a compelling, entertaining and exciting sci-fi-based series.

80’s Flashback!! Romance and crime solving have gone together since, well, forever in the world of books, theater, film and television. In 1983, Kate Jackson was looking for a new starring vehicle for her that would be less jiggle (a la Charlie’s Angels) and something that played to some of her comedic strengths. Enter the CBS series Scarecrow and Mrs. King, which would enjoy a healthy four-year run on CBS from 1983-1987. The first season DVD was just released by Warner Home Videos and is available everywhere DVDs are sold.

In the light hearted series, Jackson played Amanda King, a divorcee with two young children and a meddling mother (Beverly Garland) who, through a random meeting with a government operative (Bruce Boxleitner), winds up secretly working for the government. The shows capers were the usual typical TV fare with spies and undercover agents playing cat and mouse but the inexperienced (but surprisingly savvy) Mrs. King but there was also a layer of sexual tension between the two leads that, in later seasons, would be explored further.

The DVD release contains all 21 episodes from the first season in a 5-disc set and not only do the episodes hold up well after all this time but the sparks between Jackson and Boxleitner are some of the most enjoyable found on television.  To get your copy, check out the official site at  http://www.thewb.com/shows/scarecrow-and-mrs-king-season-1-on-dvd or anywhere that DVDs are sold.

Until next time…keep watching!

Before NBC’s Parenthood hit the air last week, it’s backstory was already an interesting one.  First a Ron Howard-directed movie starring Steve Martin in 1989, a short-lived TV spin-off in 1990 starring Ed Begley, Jr. and now it’s back in a new incarnation.  To talk about this latest version, Howard, Executive Producer Jason Katims and series star Lauren Graham recently talked to the press about the making of this series as well as Graham’s stepping in after the original pilot was shot whenMaura Tierney had to unexpectedly drop out. First, though, Katims explained his thought process of putting the series together. “The idea of the show is to sort of try to explore as much about the experience of parenthood as we can. And that includes the joyous moments, the celebration of family. It includes the embarrassing funny moments …and some very dramatic stuff, which includes having a kid with special needs, which is something that is very much a part of the show. What I’m really proud of so far having now shot the first handful of episodes and seeing a few cuts, what I’m very proud of is that I think not only are we dealing with that subject matter in a way that honors it and is real, but it’s also done in a way that is not self-pitying and depressing.”

Tierney, best known for her long-running role of Abby Lockhart on ER, originally played the role of Sarah but had to drop out due to her battle against breast cancer. Now that she’s on her way to recovery, would Katims write a part for the Tierney in the future?“You know, I have no idea whether that would happen. I mean, obviously I love Maura, love the work that she does and right now she’s doing what she kind of needs to do to get healthy and get back to a place where we might have that conversation. But it’s nothing like that is anything that we’ve talk about yet.”

While Graham said she did not watch the original pilot shot with Tierney, she talked about the difficulties of stepping into the role and ensemble. “It felt really difficult in ways. I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to really do a great job. And I push anyway but then this just felt like (more…)

It was 1986 when the third season of NBC’s Night Court hit its stride. Sandwiched between huge hits like Cheers and LA Law didn’t hurt but the show, about a New York City night court, was hilarious in its own right and this third season can be yours today courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Video.

As season 3 opened, a bit of sadness hung in the air since actress Selma Diamond, who had played baliff Selma, had died during hiatus, only to be replaced by Florence Halop (who, ironically, would die a year later.) Another addition was in the female public defender/love interest for Judge Harry Stone (comedian/magician Harry Anderson). While the first two seasons saw more than one actress slide in and out of the role,Markie Post’s Christine Sullivan was popular enough with viewers, and clicked with the rest of the wacky cast, to stick around through the end of the series in 1992.

The season 3 DVD includes all 22 episodes from the third season and while there may not be a lot of extras, the episodes hold up very well and you’ll find yourself laughing at Anderson, Post and, of course, John Larroquette as the lecherous, no-morals lawyer Dan Fielding.  Larroquette would make the biggest splash with the award circuit by winning the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmy four years in a row from 1985 to 1988.  To get your copy of Night Court, go to www.nightcourtdvd.com.

Small Wonder: Some series should be sent off to the big TV heaven in the sky never to be heard from again while others, like the 80s situation comedySmall Wonder fell somewhere just shy of that. While many critics have called this show, about a family whose father builds a protype for the first girl robot, one of the worst series ever made. Thankfully, the people at the Shout Factory didn’t believe them and, honestly, I don’t either. There are small chuckles to be had with the show and the acting, writing and directing are not even close to being the best but was Gilligan’s Island a masterpiece?  No.  Small Wonder is painless and goes down pretty easy.

With the first season on DVD nearly 24 years after its debut, Small Wonder is mostly watchable because of Tiffany Brissette, who brought stiff life to V.I.C.I. (Voice Input Child Identicant). The family is predominatly forgettable but the show did have Edie McClurg (best known for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and her TV work on such shows as The Hogan Family) as a nosey neighbor.  There are a few bonus features, too, including commentaries with the creator and cast, original episode promos and a Fan Art Gallery.  Small Wonder is not the cream of the crop but it’s pretty enjoyable just the same.

FAMILY DRAMA AT ITS FINEST: While ABC Family has redefined itself as more than just a rerun landscape for Gilmore Girls and other lame sitcoms, the network has brought a number of quality, somewhat edgy dramas to television including the super popular Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek. WithLincoln Heights, the network brought viewers a family drama that focused on a somewhat affluent black family that makes a conscious decision to move back to the urban neighborhood that they had once fled.

The first season of Lincoln Heights is now available on DVD and viewers who don’t know the Sutton family will want to check out the first 13 episodes of the series. While much of the series is about the new economically challenge neighborhood, there are also issues such as race, drugs, sex and plain old marital relationships but, probably due to the fact that the show’s producers come from shows like Soul Food and Prison Break, there is a briskness to the story telling that pulls you in quickly as a viewer.  Thumbs up on this edgy show with a big heart.

The only extra is a booklet with an introduction to the episodes by Executive Producer/showrunner Kathleen McGhee-Anderson but the episodes are strong enough on their own and definitely worth the purchase or rental. It’s also the kind of show parents should watch with their teens to form a bridge to be able to talk about sensitive, but important, topics.

One for the money…and two for the show and that show is starring a young, sexy Kurt Russell as none other than Elvis Presley. This 1979 TV movie was groundbreaking in the cinematic quality of this story about how Elvis Presley went from a young kid to being one of the biggest stars ever in the music industry. Russell was only in his late 20s when he took on the role and, wanting to break from the Disney-type roles that had pigeonholed him in the earlier stage of his career, this movie did it. The DVD of this film is coming to DVD on Tuesday shortly after Elvis would have turned 75 years old if he had lived.

Directed by feature film director John Carpenter (Halloween and The Thing, which also starred Russell), not only was the performance by Russell strong enough to warrant an Emmy nomination but also features great performances by Joe Mantegna, Ed Begley Jr, Season Hubley and Academy Award winner Shelley Winters as Elvis’s mother, Gladys.

The DVD also as some great extras from the time of the filming (Russell and Carpenter) as well as commentary on the movie from “The Voice of Elvis” Ronnie McDowell and Author Edie Hand. There are also rare clips from American Bandstand and a photo gallery of Elvis’s life. The DVD is available on Tuesday from The Shout Factory.

Until next time…keep watching!

Actress/comedian Aisha Tyler plays Lana Kane on FX's ARCHER.

The half hour animated comedy Archer has made quite a splash since it’s debut last month on FX. Created by Adam Reed and starring the voices of H. Jon Benjamin (as spy Sterling Archer), Judy Greer (as Cheryl and Carol), Jessica Walter (as Archer’s mother Malory) and Aisha Tyler as Archer’s fellow agent/ex-girlfriend Lana Kane, Archer is a hyper-look at the spy business but really is about the zany and wacky things the characters do, say and experience in every half hour. With espionage, global crises and bitter and angry spies all trying to outdo one another, Archer is a hilarious find and audiences are responding as it was just announced Monday that FX is renewing the series for a second season.

To find out more about the ins and outs of Archer, I participated on a press call with other journalists and star Aisha Tyler, who shared how she is able to say some of the outrageous lines, how her animated breasts seem to be getting bigger and what she would say if a feature film animated version of the series were to happen.

Jim Halterman: I want to know just kind of in general, how do you get some of these lines out without just busting up, like, “My vulva is smoother than a veal cutlet.”  How do you say that line?

Aisha Tyler: I was just talking to somebody about this, and I was saying that this show is in some ways just a series of out of body experiences because I feel so much kind of confusion and joy every time I go into the sound booth to record this stuff because it’s just such extraordinary language that I’ve never been able to use in television. My background is in standup comedy where I’m very free to choose the words and ideas that I express, but when I’m acting, obviously, and especially when you’re doing network television, there are a lot of constraints, and so this show is just a joy to do. I laugh constantly. I’m incredibly undisciplined. I fall all over the place. I spit into the microphone. I cackle. Luckily for me Adam Reed is as much of a doof as I am, and so we kind of just crack each other up, and the session takes too long and the sound recordist in the booth is tapping his watch, and we don’t care. We just lay on our backs like turtles and wave our legs in the air. It’s a joy. It’s a joy to make the show.

Lana Kane is a sassy spy and former girlfriend of Archer.

JH: You’re so good at comedy, but I’ve also seen some of your dramatic work, like I saw the movie .45that I thought you were so good in it. I wanted to know which, I guess, muscle is more difficult for you, drama or comedy? Which one is a little tougher for you to get into?

AI: That’s a really good question. I’ll say two things about it. Comedy is the muscle that I’ve trained probably the longest and the most intensively. It’s how I got started in entertainment, and because I do standup and that’s really my own…I’m on stage for an hour plus at a time, and it’s just me, and there are no lights and no do-overs. It’s very strenuous, but it’s the muscle that’s most well trained. I love doing drama, and when I started I was very lucky. I did an episode of Nip/Tuck several years ago that was just an extraordinary role, and I was really fortunate to get it, and I was able to do something that I was really proud of with the role, and I started to get a lot of drama (more…)

The CW’s addictive new series LIFE UNEXPECTED airs tonight at 9/8c on the CW network!!  The following link will take you to a clip from tonight’s show featuring stars Shiri Appleby and Kerr Smith when the radio show that their characters run is bombarded with questions that a bit too personal for them to want to answer (or face!).

LIFE UNEXPECTED \”Truth Unexpected\” clip

I won’t string you along through an entire blog with promises of some kind of priceless nuggets about tonight’s season premiere of Lost.  I got nothing. I was all set to watch previewed episodes on the press site where ABC posts all their screeners and tease and taunt you but, alas, there was nothing there. Some clips. Some previews. Some press clips from the recent TCAs. Well, like you, I’m stuck waiting which makes sense because in this age of immediate news, spoilers and other internet scoops, someone out there would get hold of the episodes and spill the beans and, honestly, who wants that?

So, let me ask this…what is it about Lost, which airs tonight on ABC at 9/8c, that has captivated AND frustrated us after all?  It can’t be merely the mystery about the island, why our Oceanic 815 castaways are there, the black smoke monster, Jacob, Locke, etc. It comes down to two things – the storytelling (duh!) and trust.

Sure, the ride from the first episode to tonight’s sixth season opener hasn’t been an easy one. After one of the best first seasons of any series, Lost stumbled along the way with twists and turns that either didn’t make perfect sense or just didn’t take us where we thought we were going but us diehards learned to trust creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse early on and just went along for the ride.

One other television cult classic comes to mind when thinking of a series where you just had to keep the faith in terms of where things were going. In the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) died and was revived, the series took a dark turn as our spunky heroine went to the mopey place but, through it all, we trusted Joss Whedon to get us out and, of course, he did. We may not have always enjoyed the ride but we never wanted to get off. The same thing can be said for Lost.

In the recent press for the show, Cuse and Lindelof have both said that they are not sure if fans will love where the sixth season takes them but, like any good writers, they themselves have to have faith in their storytelling. We can ponder endlessly about the fact that John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) is really dead and his body is just being used now for not-so-good purposes (if that’s even what’s really happening) or if we have to endure more of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle (sounds like we will) and will Jin and Sun find their happy ending (I have a feeling they will for some reason since these two have been the secondary romantic core of the series)?

Regardless, I’m in. Take me where you want, Cuse and Lindelof. I’m not promising that I won’t bitch and moan if something doesn’t jive with me but even then I’ll probably only do so half as loud because I trust you know how to steer this ship home and give us a great story.

Leave me a comment here and tell me your favorite LOST story from the entire series. Was it Charlie’s death? A bearded Jack screaming to Kate in the present “We have to go back!”? Or the death of Mr. Ecko?  Tell me in the comments below.